Down 24-20 to No. 23 Catalina Foothills in the fourth set Tuesday night at home, No. 7 Canyon del Oro used a kill from Alex Jacome, a net violation and a couple of more kills from Macy Whatton to tie the set up 25-25 with the Falcons leading the match two sets to one. Catalina Foothills went up 26-25 and then Mercey Martinez scored an ace for the 27-25 win to move to 5-6 in ranking matches in the 5A Conference.

Canyon del Oro (8-3) moved up to the 5A Conference from 4A for the first time since the Dorados competed in the old Division II era in 2015 due to an increase in enrollment this fall. The Dorados took second place to Notre Dame in 2021 and now both programs are competing in 5A. The Falcons moved up to 5A from 4A in 2020.

The victory was a big upset according to the rankings coming in so it will be interesting to see how far up the Falcons move from No. 23 and how far down the Dorados will move from No. 7 but both squads have six matches left in the regular season including a rematch against each other at Catalina Foothills on Oct. 30.

In the first set, the Dorados went out to an 11-6 lead but the Falcons went on a 6-0 run, fueled by the play of Martinez, to take a 12-11 lead. The set went to an 18-18 tie but Catalina Foothills closed it out on a 7-2 run for the 25-20 win to go up 1-0.

Lucy Rubio put down a couple of kills in the second set to put the Falcons up 19-12, only to see the Dorados cut the deficit down to 19-16 on an ace from Abbey Garner. Once again, the Falcons went on a run, this time a 6-0 run for the 25-16 win to go up 2-0.

The third set played out to a 25-15 win by the Dorados to cut the lead down to 2-1 but the Falcons took the third set 27-25 for the 3-1 victory.

The Dorados appeared to have difficulty returning serve on the night with the Falcons coming up with 17 aces but the Dorados also came up with 17. Jacome had seven aces for Canyon del Oro to go along with 18 assists and Macy Whatton had five aces with nine kills. Ansley Snyder led the Dorados with 12 kills. Martinez collected five aces for the Falcons to go with 15 kills, Zoe Brown had 28 assists and Rubio added nine kills.